I feel like a pinch hitter, or something...

http://tinyurl.com/gt5cm

it looks to me like they'll get the game in, as long as the field has been kept dry.

And as I type this, good news from Cincy.

Unfortunately, it's a bank owned by Charles Keating.

"I vote (for the MVP), and I await the backlash, which annually comes on two fronts: from outraged fans of runner-up players and from statistical analysts whose computers see things those of us in the Baseball Writers Association of America sometimes miss. Perhaps we are too busy at the ballpark covering games."

Translation for non-journalists: I am a dumb ignoramus, but I get to watch baseball and write about it ignorantly for a living; you don't.

Actually, Charles Keating owned S&Ls, but I stand by my joke.

http://tinyurl.com/ketbt

Well, the fast start is a distinct possibility (bases loaded, one out, Kent up), but it has already started raining!

That 2nd error doesn't help either...

it was a little bloop if you ask me, but i'm o.k. with Nomar not scoring.

Bases loaded; Kent hit a weak grounder between 3rd and short for a run. Ethier hit a forceout/possible DP to the second baseman, who couldn't get it out of his glove, and didn't get any outs. Kemp hit a DP ball to short, but after the force at second, the relay to first was wild, and two more runs scored.

agreed.

Well, Monday just said that the rain has slacked off and is now very light.

Probably his catcher ERA. Or is TB so far behind that he has come in to pitch? ;-)

Bynum is having a tough night.

Leonard however did that in 1876 and wasn't wearing a glove.

The AL best is five. Nap Lajoie is one of the people to do that.

i'd like the announcers to say that, there 2nd baseman is a good athlete.

Or ...

"It ain't easy being white."

that just reminded me of my 3rd grade teacher doing a little dance for the rain to go away. :o)

she was hispanic & we all participated, i know what you're thinking.

Rafael Furcal 38.8
Nomar Garciaparra 29.3
Andre Ethier 25.8
Jeff Kent 24.3
Kenny Lofton 24.1
J.D. Drew 23.3
Russell Martin 20.0
Olmedo Saenz 13.6
Matt Kemp 5.6
James Loney 4.4
Wilson Betemit 4.4
Ramon Martinez 3.7
Toby Hall 3.6
Jason Repko 2.1

the thing is they traded good players for some of those "relievers"

71 Either 1980 when Davey Lopes had exactly 10 homers or for sure 1979 when Davey hit 28.

Derek Lowe 41.0
Brad Penny 31.4
Takashi Saito 29.4
Jonathan Broxton 22.7
Chad Billingsley 21.0
Joe Beimel 15.2
Brett Tomko 11.3
Aaron Sele 11.0
Greg Maddux 9.4
Hong-Chih Kuo 5.0
Elmer Dessens 4.7
Giovanni Carrara 2.4
Eric Stults 2.0
Mark Hendrickson 0.0
Tim Hamulack -1.2

Hah! Award for best use of physics in a baseball joke.

WWSH

shame on him.

Valentin Ks.

WWSH

May, they look bad.

WWSH

Thanks. Had to do something to compete with a Charles Keating joke.

Kudos to 98 and 102 for alternative predictions. If 98 is right, we'd have to play an infinite number of innings to score our 8th run!

it just makes it more interesting for us Dodger fans, i would have liked a hit.

Whazzup w/ dat?

Which leads to questions--TBS doesn't seem to show as many Braves games as it did, and WGN not as many of the Cubs'. Is this right? If so, why or why not?

Questions, questions. I seek answers...and just to see the Dodger game, not something people in TN can do very often.

Looks like we're gonna take that long trip thru the bullpen you were after.

WWSH

Reminds me now of Brian Jordan running over a catcher at the plate a while back.

In the long term, I think Kemp will be fine, but that last AB was disappointing. He's a kid; he'll figure it out.

WWSH

WWSH

a d-back catcher? or was it the pitcher?

not me.

i thing Grady should start Betemit for often.

:o) yes!

Get through the 5th inning, Derek.

yeah, but i'm sure our bullpen is better.

i feel good about my prediction

Lowe had a Jeff Weaver like meltdown, although we managed to get out of the inning with a GIDP.

WWSH

WWSH

my Dodger mojo is hard at work.

Thanks WWSH. Lowe had been on such a roll lately. Bummer.

WWSH

This whole emotionless thing reminds me of the knock against Green, even when he was hitting over 40 HR a season for us.

WWSH

Hatteberg GIDP.

Useless.

WWSH

For the time being...

I supported the trade that sent him away from LAD, but it would be nice to see him hitting more like he used to.

WWSH

I agree that Bastardo is a cooler name. Imagine Vinny saying that on the air.

WWSH

I assume we'll see Tomko/Brox/Sammy for 7/8/9?

WWSH

Those of such little faith deserve the most hideous of punishments.

WWSH

WWSH

I actually like Steiner, but please, please, I'd rather not think about the inevitable.

WWSH

(2 on, 2 outs, Todd Walker up)

WWSH

Hands over my ears... La La La La....

WWSH

That's hilarious...

WWSH

WWSH

Then who gave me that DVD of "Hudson Hawk" if not Santa Claus?

203 - that was the Small Intestine Fairy.

WWSH

Pathetic.

WWSH

WWSH

Many, many euphemisms.

WWSH

WWSH

Either you used a typo or that's an expression I've never heard before in my life regarding baseball.

The Philosopher King frowns on such things.

WWSH

Arghhhh....

WWSH

Sorry--forgot they were playing in Cincy.

Bottom of the 11th.

WWSH

I would also have been banned many times over.

WWSH

WWSH

A loose ship ... leaks a lot.

As in "Yeah, the guy crushed the ball, but the pitcher threw an absolute .....shot."

Bad inning by Lowe, some of it from bad luck, which led to five runs. Then Tomko left Broxton a mess he couldn't get out of, and two runs scored. So we're tied.

WWSH

Every one of us could talk about a sadder game in turn.

If you lined us up appropriately.

WWSH

I see your point, but it has a lot of competition in Dodger history, including April 30 this year.

Discuss.

Drew almost redeemed himself there.

WWSH

As i type this the winning run is safe by an inch. Perfectly summing up this game.

Helen is excited because the Cubs might win a game before the season is over.

Come on, it's the eighth. Still three outs to go.

WWSH

You're just not looking hard enough!

Really? You don't remember the time Repko throw the ball into the backstop? Or the time's he's been overagressive in CF?

WWSH

That's five hits that could just have easily been outs or foul balls- in one inning. Disgraceful. :'(

Missed a catch he should have made, leading to a man on third with no out. And nearly (but didn't) throw out the same batter at the plate on a sac fly.

WWSH

Unfortunately, I may have been a little too accurate...

Or it's just baseball.

We'll get the breaks back, eventually.

WWSH

No, I just think he's better than Repko.

WWSH

The one everyone knows (I don't know if it is the biggest lead they've ever blown) is that game when they led the Phillies 11-1 after 7, gave up 2 in the 8th and 9 in the 9th to lose 12-11. I'm sure (if I remember the details correctly) that Bob will be able to find it on Retrosheet.

Thank God for ReDempster.

I like Izzy now.

They might lose, 8-7. But I don't think professionals believe it to be predestined.

I only heard about it the next day from a friend (I was out of the country). It would have had to have been 1986-1992, inclusive.

Bynum --> Izturis --> Lee/Martin

I don't understand...

Homer the Astronaut.

One might thing this game is rigged, after watching their fielding display tonite.

Then whatever Freddy Bynum was doing.

Definitely the worst game I've ever seen. Ever.

Is this a change? I don't remember the last two words "and baseball" being there before.

No, really, hail - best go back to the dugout to be safe.

And... he obliges.

I will read the rest of the comment thread tomorrow morning before I check the game score. Hope I have some good news to read!

Good night, and good luck.

Duly noted; thanks.

393

Exactly, and how many times could Grady have made better use of the bullpen (i. e., bring in a better reliever in a higher-leverage situation) in the last two weeks?

It has nothing to do with asking Saito to do everything. Saito is rested.

That's why JD makes the big bucks.

Since 1900, the ML record is 12. Detroit commited 12 errors against Chicago on May 1, 1901 in the AL, and Chicago commited 12 errors against Detroit on May 6, 1903, also in the AL. The NL record is 11, held by St. Louis on April 19, 1902, Boston on June 11, 1906 & St. Louis on July 3, 1909.

Evidence for the gradual improvement of fielding? Or how about the grumpy old-timer contrarian position: "that was an error in my day, boy--they don't score em like they used to..."

Anyway, I have to think someone else will face Lee in the 10th.

I can't believe Little is leaving Sele in for this.

429 - me too.

hell of a gamble, but when you luck out...

How can you make an argument that the pitcher more likely to allow a run should pitch when one run ends the game?

Sele allows runs twice as often as Saito. Believe me, I'm thrilled the Dodgers survived the 10th, but it was not the smart choice to use him.

436 No. See above.

In the seventh inning of a tie game.

However, if you believe you won't see a higher leverage situation than one you see in the 5th, bring in the best reliever.

In this case, a tie game is higher leverage than one where you have a lead, so Saito should be in.

And he's actually been pretty judicious -- he was 9-9 I think before his last two CS.

But this one, with no outs and your 3-4-5 hitters coming was just, was just a bad call. By Frank Robinson I mean, as this seemed to be a called hitnrun/double steal.

It is as Steve says. It is all about leverage, and Little and every other manager in baseball does not understand that at all.

Thine end is nigh.

Why are you cool with Sele and not Hamulack? Their ERAs are similar.

As for the starting pitcher argument, 1) I know I'll need a starting pitcher tomorrow, so it's a different situation, 2) Saito might be better than our starters at this point, otherwise, I'd consider it, especially if it were their day to throw in between starts.

Yes, but most managers cost their teams anywhere from 1 to 5 games per year, because they don't understand percentages. 443 is right. I alluded to the analysis in BP's "Baseball Between The Lines" a few days ago which gives the stats and analysis. Actually, I see that Paul beat me to the response (462), but since I've gone to the trouble of typing this, I'll post it anyway!

Never mind. Dang it, Kenny.

The rule was changed after some Earl Weaver machinations in 1978 that turned a 5-3 Yankee win into a 3-0 loss.

And I like Grady. A lot.

Lowe does deserve his fair share of the blame, but Grits management of the bullpen was absolutely horrendous. I'm having flashbacks of Jimbo right now.

If so, I don't see the resemblance at all.

That said, I have no idea what Hamulack was doing in the game. Sheesh.

Some Nats chatters actually have nicknamed him Lohan for that reason.

Got him from Detroit for either a PTBNL or Cash (final outcome not announced yet) towards the end of August.

I'm referring to BP's analysis of exactly this situation. And they are as stathead as you can get. And yes, I am using the term as a badge of pride. The analysis shows that using your best relievers in the highest-leverage situations (which, as Paul points out, no managers do), would result in an average gain of 1.5 wins per season, with a maximum of 4.5 extra wins. That is huge. There is a pretty fair chance that we would have won this game if we had had the correct combination of Broxton & Saito in the important innings when the Cubs scored their runs. As Jon pointed out (494), all we have now is a well-rested Saito in the loser's dugout.